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Wednesday, July 5, 2017

"Greeks Are Interested In The Eternal And Not The Contemporary!"

Below is an interesting exchange between two passionate commentators in this blog.

Statement
Anonymous can be rather annoying to listen to, but it is still useful. He expresses the opinions of many Greeks, the opinions they don't tell you to your face. It may not make you understand why, but it can make them more predictable to you, how they tick, what buttons to press.

Response by Anonymous
I wouldn't put it this way. As a general rule, we Greeks don't know what we want because if we don't then our enemies don't know either what we want and therefore they can not block us from having it. There is also the added benefit that if we "don't know what we want", then we can not be traitors to our country, like for an example an Austrian who knows exactly what his country wants and volunteers to tell us (at that point we can do some serious harm to Austria). We grumble continuously: nothing is satisfactory but yet again this is a nice method of passing information to each other without risking imprisonment or death (because we all grumble, therefore we are all guilty of the crime of being never satisfied and we can not be persecuted for such). This is where you foreigners fall into the trap. You hear Greeks complain about this, that and the other and you say "let's help these people fix it". But that's the thing: you can't fix it. Otherwise we lose this important protection of not displaying what our true intentions are and we become conquerable. And if we become conquerable then our fate is assimilation and extinction. The point is this: after thousands of years we are still here, we speak a language that is hard for a foreigner to understand and we don't want to have a Kratos (in other words an oppressive state) to dominate us which some of you gentlemen consider being the utmost good (a well-run state). That's why I have tried to warn you many times that you are wasting your time with us because whatever the cost we are determined to outlast you. This is our survival kit and has worked fine with the Romans, Byzantines and the Turks. Compare to the Greeks, Germans, Austrians and the like are simple footnotes - we know for sure how to outlast you.

So the bottom line question here is what exactly are you observing? We will never be clear as to what we really want; you will never understand what we really want and therefore you would be unable to give it to us. All you are going to get in the end is a lesson which I am not sure is applicable to your circumstances and daily lives.

Each Greek you speak to has many different opinions, none of which expose the core of our existence. They are a form of making conversation, or part of humanity if you wish.

None of our political parties are focused on our eternal strategy. They are only concerned about social trends and economics which are the most anti-Greek things because by definition Greeks are interested in the eternal and not the contemporary.

Obviously the question whether you shop at the right supermarket will always come up.

According to this export website below Greek exports to the UK are up about 5% for the 4 months of 2017 ending in April. Perhaps you need to do your shopping in nearby Ireland where Greek exports are up 42% this year or maybe Denmark where Greek exports are 74% up YTD.

@kleingut:I think the responding person is utterly delusional and tries to make sense or rationalise the mental state that led Greece (and many Greeks) into poverty and dependency.Many Greeks seem to be fully convinced that Greeks (at least when living in Greece) are incacapable of caring for themselves, unable to do anything useful and thus they envision themselves completely and utterly at their friends and enemies mercy.They try to cover this conviction of their own helplessness with their boastful rhetoric of enemies, strategy, retaliation and damnation. Yet all this empty rubbish is just a band aid on the wound of their deeply felt inferiority. This may be the result of their centuries-long existence under Ottoman occupation, but however this mentality developed the Greeks have to free themselves from it.Urs

Nothing happened during the Ottomans Urs. They appreciated the Greeks and mostly Constantinople-based Greeks run the empire.

In my opinion the Ottomans were the best thing that happened to Greeks because it's through them we finished with Rome and then gained our freedom as an independent nation. You and the rest of Europe are still under Roman occupation (see EUSSR) or those pursuing Roman nonsense like Charlomagne. We have nothing to do with Rome because we are Greeks, in other words, the idols of the Romans. Romans worshipped us; we did not return the feeling because they were not our equals. It's so simple if you know where to look.

But more importantly, pray tell, in this little play you’ve concocted (with the “centuries-long existence under Ottoman occupation” being the little cherry on top your EXTREMLY trite – shows how much you know – αμποελοεθνοψυχολογία”) what exactly is the role you’ve cast your dear self in?

And yet you pontificate on the Greek "psyche", national character, mentality (seemingly a more safe word and, hence, in vogue), collective spirit or subconscious, historical determination, ethnic psycho-pathology or whatever, without even understanding the language, much less speaking it… How seriously would you take someone claiming the same for the study of British, French, Americans, your Germans (but tellingly enough not Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians and … Russians) or even your dearest germanophone / Germanic selves, all the while proudly incapable to hold a conversation in their respective languages? I wonder where this attitude stems from and what does it mean for those adopting it… I'll give you a hint: it is actually integral to the point I was implying in my first riposte to your informed opinion / medical report.

And here's an other stepping stone on the arduous path towards your self-knowledge! You're welcome!

To answer your question now:Άμπελος, η = Vine Έθνος, το= NationΨυχολογία, η= PsychologyIt's a compound word I made up but easily decipherable by a Greek speaker since it is formed after the very common term: "αμπελοφιλοσοφία" (abelofilossofia) or better in plural: "αμπελοφιλοσοφίες" (abelofilossofies)= άμπελος + φιλοσοφία ( philosophy) = "philosophy of the vine", drunken philosophy or philosophy of the drunkards, i.e. ostentatious remarks uttered with pretentions of profoundness while, in fact, wild claims and… balderdash. I hope it's easy now to deduce the meaning of "αμπελοεθνοψυχολογία" !

It is after all something in which are extremely quick to indulge themselves a great many people of a certain "education" and political persuasion (though not as exclusively so as one would imagine), as long as no one returns the favor, especially if these virtuous, "by-our-bootstraps" αμπελοεθνοψυχολόγοι come from German or Germanic lands.

1. Hegel isn’t in any way one of "my philosophers".2. The claim that "Being and non-being are the same" is pseudo profound nonsense. 3. Your childish armchair strategems can not hide the abysmal state the Greek economy and the Greek society is in. 4. Your half baked reflections on history are nothing but escapism. Hic Rhodos, hic salta. Tell us how you think a sustainable greek pension system would look like, how it can be financed and what the appopriate pension age would be. Try to argue like a grown up and not like a huffy brat. Urs

You keep missing the fact that saving the Greek state is none of my concern. I explained why and you purposely ignore it.

So if you want to get serious the answer is that you will pay for the Greek pension system because you broke it. And once you break something you own it. And now that you have occupied my country I have zero desire to collaborate with you on anything. Figure it all out on your own. And keep sending the money because these are the rules of the EU and we need to follow the rules.

o.k. so let's look at the big picture for a moment. There are far more exciting things going on other than the slowly dying eurozone. And Greece could benefit from those new trends.

So the new European important player is Poland. And Poland means intermarium. And intermarium means that instead of Turkey comprising its southern chain link, the triad of Greece, Cyprus and Israel should take its place. And who knows Kleingut, maybe through the intermarium, Austria and Greece might have something in common after all.

And yet you pontificate on the Greek "psyche", national character, mentality (seemingly a more safe word and, hence, in vogue), collective spirit or subconscious, historical determination, ethnic psycho-pathology or whatever, without even understanding the language, much less speaking it… How seriously would you take someone claiming the same for the study of British, French, Americans, even your Germans (but tellingly enough not Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians and … Russians) or even your dearest germanophone / Germanic selves, all the while proudly incapable to hold a conversation in their respective languages? I wonder where this attitude stems from and what does it mean for those adopting it… I'll give you a hint: it is actually integral to the point I was implying in my first riposte to your informed opinion / medical report.

And here's an other stepping stone on the arduous path towards your self-knowledge!You're welcome!

To answer your question now:Άμπελος, η = Vine Έθνος, το= NationΨυχολογία, η= PsychologyIt's a compound word I made up but easily decipherable by a Greek speaker since it is formed after the very common term: "αμπελοφιλοσοφία" (abelofilossofia)= άμπελος + φιλοσοφία ( philosophy) = "philosophy of the vine", drunken philosophy or philosophy of the drunkards, i.e. ostentatious remarks uttered with pretentions of profoundness while, in fact, wild claims and… balderdash. I hope it's easy now to deduce the meaning of "αμπελοεθνοψυχολογία" !

It is after all something in which are extremely quick to indulge themselves a great many people of a certain "education" and political persuasion (though not as exclusively so as one would imagine), as long as no one returns the favor, especially if these virtuous, "by-our-bootstraps" αμπελοεθνοψυχολόγοι come from German or Germanic lands.